by S R Ahuja
“Wait!” she demanded. “You promise we won’t get hurt.”
He turned back to her, and he was smiling again. “Yes.”
She took a deep breath. “Fine.” She held out her hand to him, and he immediately grabbed it and pulled her up onto the ledge.
“Now, magic is really very easy,” he told her. “All you have to do is think about what you want, and then make it real.”
“How do you make it real?”
“I don’t know. You just do. Just don’t think about the ground, or that’s where you’ll end up. Think about the sky and the stars!”
Suddenly all Jade could think about was the ground. “But…”
He didn’t wait for her. Peter stepped off of the ledge and pulled her with him. For one terrible moment, they fell straight down toward the ground. Jade closed her eyes as a scream ripped out of her throat.
As soon as the fall had started, she felt the direction of the wind change. Suddenly the wind was pushing down on her instead of up. Her scream was wiped away silently by the wind rushing past her. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes just a crack, and what she saw took her breath away.
The ground was disappearing beneath them. Looking up, all she could see was an endless sea of stars against a jet black sky. The moon was just a tiny sliver tonight, but it was enough to illuminate Peter’s pale face. He wasn’t smiling exactly, but he looked so happy, like there wasn’t a thing in the world that could hold him on the ground. He looked at her suddenly, and then the joyous smile was back on his face. He said something to her, but she couldn’t hear it over the wind.
“What?!” she shouted.
“Look down!” he shouted back.
Although it went against her every instinct, she’d trusted him enough to jump out of a castle window, and he hadn’t let her down, so she trusted him again and looked down.
Now it wasn’t just the ground shrinking, she could see the whole castle, and now the Hamlet, and all the way to the Forest, and she thought she could even see a hole in the trees where the Elven Village must be. She squeezed Peter’s hand tighter, and he squeezed it right back.
Jade wasn’t sure if she was actually flying at all or if Peter was just pulling her along with him, but she was loving every instant of it. She didn’t try to control which way they went; she wouldn’t have known where to go anyway.
She was quite content to just follow Peter especially since she still partially believed that if she let go of his hand she might plummet to the ground.
She could see fairy lights twinkling all over the ground below, and she wondered if Lali was one of them. She wondered if Lali could see her up so high.
Lali would never believe that Jade could fly. This is what she had thought it would be like to live in Avalon and learn magic. Jade was made to fly.
She didn’t question Peter’s choices until she saw a gray fog up ahead of them. It was like a wall of clouds reaching from the ground so high that even as high up in the sky as they were she couldn’t see an end to it.
“Peter!” she yelled over the wind.
He looked back at her, and they slowed a bit, but they were still moving toward the cloud wall.
She pointed at the wall of clouds ahead of them.
He smiled at her again, a different smile that was almost a little wicked. “That is adventure.”
They sped up again and either he could not hear her shouts to him over the increased wind or he pretended like he couldn’t because he didn’t want to answer her. He flew them directly into the cloud. The mist was cold and wet. Jade was immediately drenched and shivering, but she continued to clutch desperately to Peter’s hand.
It was like trying to see through cotton. Jade didn’t even know which way was up and down after just a few minutes, but Peter seemed to know where he was going. Finally, she felt herself start to slow down and move ever so slightly toward the ground. Within seconds, her feet were brushing grass.
Peter touched down lightly onto his tip toes, but the jolt of hitting the ground was more than she had expected, and Jade fell forward onto her hands and knees, finally letting go of Peter’s hand. Her fingers were stiff from holding on so tightly for so long, but he didn’t even seem phased.
“Come on, it’s up ahead,” he said and started walking away into the mist.
“Wait!” Jade called again, terrified of losing him in the fog and never getting out. She knew where they were now. They were in the Fog Plains. She had been there earlier that same day with Sehali, Azatae, and Caeci, but it seemed much more ominous and dangerous now in the dark of night. She stumbled to her feet and ran after Peter.
He had already disappeared, and she didn’t realize he had stopped just out of her field of vision. She ran right into his back. He laughed and pulled her up to her feet once again. He grabbed her hand and then started running into the fog. Although he ran ahead of her enough that she could not see him, she felt better because she wouldn’t get lost while she was holding his hand.
When they finally broke through the fog, they were at the same waterfall she had seen earlier, but once again everything looked different illuminated only by the light of the crescent moon. There was a large plume of mist billowing up from the lake that stopped her from seeing the top of the waterfall. Around the lake though, it was surprisingly clear of fog.
Peter stopped moving and dropped her hand. “Well, here we are!” he declared happily.
“This is it?” Jade whined. “I thought we were going to see dragons.”
“Oh, don’t worry, Princess. There are dangers of a different kind here.”
“Like what?” Jade asked, thinking of the story Azatae had told earlier. But it was just a story, at least, that’s what she told herself.
“Come here, I’ll show you,” he said, motioning toward the water’s edge.
He walked right into the water toward a large rock not far away. He climbed up on the rock and then turned back to her.
“Well, are you coming?”
Hurriedly, she ran into the water; it was only ankle deep near the rock. The water was surprisingly warm, much warmer than the mist had been. She clambered up onto the rock behind Peter.
When she was sitting next to him, Peter asked her, “Are you ready for an adventure?”
She smiled a little nervously and then nodded. He smiled back at her, and then he puckered his lips and started whistling. It was unlike any whistle Jade had ever heard. It was clear and bright and beautiful. It sounded like a crisp winter morning covered in snow if it could be made into a song. She was so transfixed by his song that she didn’t see the heads bobbing up in the water until he stopped.
There was a red head, a yellow, a brown, a white, and a black. At first, just their eyes and hair appeared above the water’s surface. Then they began to swim closer. Once their mouths were above water, they picked up Peter’s song where he’d left off, singing intricate melodies and harmonies that wove together perfectly. Jade’s first thought was of the murderous mermaid from the story, but the song was so beautiful; nothing so beautiful could be evil. The song pulled at something in Jade’s memory just on the edge of a full remembering. After a moment, their beautiful song trailed to an end.
The one with white hair moved forward toward the rock. “Peter,” she said. “You haven’t visited us in so long. We missed you.”
Now they were all swimming with their head and bare shoulders completely out of the water. They were very beautiful; they didn’t look anything like the monsters she had imagined when she’d heard the story. It must really be just that, a story. These women couldn’t possibly hurt a little child.
“Yes, but look, I’ve brought a new friend, so that makes up for it, doesn’t it?” he asked, leaning onto his arms so he was lying on his stomach on the rock.
“Your song was so beautiful,” Jade said to the woman.
Her yellow eyes flashed to Jade’s face, and then she smiled in an overly sweet way, like cough syrup that grownups try to make taste like fr
uit or bubble gum, like she was trying very hard to be liked. “Why yes, such a pretty little girl.”
“Yes,” the one with yellow hair swam closer, “she looks positively inhuman!”
Jade shrank back a little, unsure of how to take their compliments. “Umm, thanks.”
“What’s your name, pretty,” the red head asked.
“Umm… My name is Amalthea.”
“Amalthea?” they cried in unison. They all began swimming closer to the rock.
“Not the princess?”
“Of course she is!”
“Just look at her!”
“She looks just like…”
“…the Queen!”
“She looks just like the Queen before…”
Suddenly they stopped moving and speaking. They were practically climbing up the side of the rock. Peter hadn’t moved; he was still lying on his stomach, but Jade was as far back on the rock as she could be without stepping back into the water. Their last comment caught her attention though.
“Before what?” she asked. “Did you know my mother?” Despite her unease of these women, she climbed forward again.
“Peter, she’s so pretty!” the one with brown hair said. “We want to play with her!”
“Well, go ahead,” Peter laughed. “She is here to have an adventure. I’d wager ‘playing’ with you ladies would qualify,” he said, putting extra emphasis on the word “playing” like there was something more than Jade might think.
“Come on!” the one with black hair reached out and grabbed Jade’s wrist where it lay on the rock. To do so, she had to rise out of the water, and Jade could see her entire body. She was shirtless although her long black hair was long enough to cover her bare breasts. What was really shocking was just below her belly button. Instead of skin like a human, she had pink scales like a fish that covered her hips and went down into the water.
“Wait, please,” Jade tried to pull her hand away but couldn’t.
“Oh come on,” another one said as she too came out of the water, revealing an orange tail. She grabbed Jade’s other wrist. “We won’t bite!”
“At least, not right now!” another giggled.
“Peter!” Jade turned to him for help, both her hands pinned to the rock.
“Don’t worry, Jade. I told you I wouldn’t let you get hurt. They just want to play.” He looked away suddenly like he heard something in the distance. “I just remembered, I have to do something, but I’ll be right back.”
Terror flooded Jade’s body. “No! Peter, don’t leave me!”
“Sorry, Princess. I’ve got to go, but the mermaids will take good care of you, right girls?”
“Of course, Peter,” they sang in unison.
“See you soon, Jade.” He jumped to his feet and pushed off from the rock, soaring away before Jade could call after him again.
“Peter!” she shrieked.
“Oh my, she’s terribly loud,” one of them said as she swam back and covered her ears with her hands.
“And off key,” another added.
“Girls, do you think she can scream so loudly when she’s underwater?” the one with white hair asked the others.
“Ooh! Let’s find out.” The one holding Jade’s right wrist tugged a little, making her fall flat onto her stomach. Her face hit the rock and dazed her for a moment.
“Come on, Princess!”
“Come swim with us!”
Together, the two holding her wrists both yanked hard, and Jade tumbled head first into the warm water. The water was much deeper where she fell, and she fell so deep into the water that she couldn’t see the moonlight clearly enough to know which way to swim. She started to panic and began kicking out with her feet.
“Now, now.” The mermaids were all around her and continued speaking clearly despite the water.
“Don’t kick.”
But Jade continued to kick out desperately with her legs. All too quickly, her lungs began to burn as the air within them was used up. She closed her eyes and imagined Peter coming back. He would fly back to the lake and dive straight down into the water.
She stopped kicking with her legs and allowed herself to go limp. She could still feel the current of the water as the mermaids swam around her. It was not silent; the mermaids kept whispering and giggling to each other, and every once in a while, one of them would reach out to stroke her arm, her hair, her face.
Just when Jade’s air was about to be used up, she heard a different sound. It was distant and muffled through the water, but Jade could feel the mermaids pause their movement to listen.
“Oh! He’s back!” one of them called out.
The hands on Jade’s wrists disappeared. Her eyes flashed open in time to see all the mermaids swim for the surface. She felt weak and tired, but with her new freedom came a final burst of energy. Using her last ounces of oxygen, she swam with all her might for the surface.
Her head broke the water amidst the mermaids. Jade just focused on gulping in huge, deep breaths and trying to steady the dizzy feeling in her head. Once the dizziness had subsided slightly, Jade looked around at the mermaids, but they didn’t even look at her. They were all gazing up the waterfall.
Despite her fear and desperation to get away from these crazed women, her curiosity couldn’t allow Jade to run without looking up too. There was a figure diving down through the mist straight for them. He fell so fast it was difficult to make out the details. All she could see was his hands cutting through the water just before his head and body splashed down.
Chapter V
Lyonés
____________________________________
The mermaids cried as he entered the water and laughed with joy when his head broke the surface again. He was almost directly in front of Jade, facing her, before she realized that it was not Peter.
This boy looked older than her, maybe 10 or 11. He had very short, brown hair and rich brown eyes. Something about him looked familiar to her, but she couldn’t think of where she had seen this boy. He was not one of the children from the Hamlet. She would recognize all of them even if she didn’t know all of their names. She had never met this boy in Avalon, but she felt she had most definitely seen him somewhere before.
He spit out a mouthful of water that hit her in the face. Disgusted, she followed her first instinct, which was to shove her hands forward and send a wave of water over this boy’s face. He seemed shocked at first, and then he narrowed his eyes.
“Who are you?” His question seemed like an accusation, like he was at once asking her name and accusing her of being in a place she did not belong.
She did not trust this boy, although she didn’t know him, but because she was surrounded by mermaids and could not get away, she faced him with as much strength as she could muster, still treading water. “My name is Amalthea.”
She saw a quick flicker of recognition in his eyes. He did not say a word just started swimming for the shore. Jade took off after him; the mermaids did not try to stop her.
When the boy crawled on shore he turned around and watched Jade flounder to the shore and collapse. All of the mermaids meanwhile were chattering and giggling and trying to get the boy’s attention.
“Cadwr!” one of them called.
“It’s been ages since you visited.”
“We get so bored here with no little children to play with.”
“Sisters, he’s not really a child anymore. Is he?”
“No, no! He’s becoming such a handsome young man.”
“A gentleman!”
“A prince!”
“And a handsome young gentleman such as Cadwr would always come to visit his favorite merfolk, wouldn’t he.”
Finally, the boy smiled at the mermaids, and they all broke down into giggles again. “I will always come to see you, mi’ladies. You are some of my most cherished friends.”
“I told you…”
“…a gentleman!”
“Now, who can tell me, where did this gi
rl come from?” the boy, Cadwr, asked the mermaids.
“Oh, Cadwr…”
“…we were just playing with her.”
“She’s really not hurt at all.”
“I can tell you where I came from,” Jade mumbled under her breath. Cadwr had heard her though.
He looked at her when he spoke this time, “Fine, then tell me. Where did you come from? Why are you here?”
Jade glanced nervously over her shoulder at the mermaids, but she didn’t think any of them would crawl up the rocky shore to get to her.
“I was brought here, by another boy. He said that he would look after me. He said he wouldn’t let me get hurt. He said we were going to go on an adventure! But then he took me here, to them.” She pointed over her shoulder at the mermaids.
“And they started tugging on my hands. Peter said he wouldn’t let me get hurt, but then he…” Jade stopped short. When she had said Peter’s name, the look on the boy’s face had changed from annoyance to surprise and almost… could he be afraid? Of Peter? “Do you know him?” She took an unconscious step toward the boy, trying to understand the expression on his face.
“I… yeah… I know him,” was all he said. He looked down at his feet momentarily and then back up at her. “You really shouldn’t trust him, you know.”
“Why not?” Jade pressed, stepping forward again.
“He’s just… he’s just not a good kid. He’s weird.”
She was taken aback. “I guess he’s a bit odd, but what’s wrong with that?”
“There’s just something not right about that kid.” Cadwr tried to explain. “Like, he never gets any older. He’s looked about ten-years-old for as long as I’ve been alive. And other little things. Like, he has this way of just making people do stuff.”
“What? Like he threatens them?” Jade asked.
“No, he just, I don’t know, tells them to do something and they just do it.”
She narrowed her eyes. “So, he’s good at convincing people, so what?”
“Like, I bet he convinced you to get out of bed in the middle of the night to run away with some boy you didn’t know who’d probably broken into your house.”
